Can you be more sensitive to the AMP than the DAC?

[josiah]

I have recently gotten into the audio side of entertainment lately. I'm really enjoying my Sundara's right now.

I have been doing the usual...trying to find the perfect Audio combination for the price. One thing I have noticed, is that I seem to be a lot more sensitive to the quality of the AMP than the DAC.

I noticed a huge upgrade from anything to the Fiio K5 Pro. Which shouldn't make sense, the Fiio's dac scores are not the greatest. Then I noticed the GSX1000 with the ATOM sounds way better than before. This includes some easy to power headphones... I figured I would test the atom with other combinations, and it seemed to make a night and day difference compared to the default AMPS.

I would say it's all in my head, but I have to listen really closely for the DAC differences, I notice the AMP differences immediately.

 

[amirm]

No doubt. That is why I don't even do much listening tests for DACs but test every headphone amplifier. It is trivial to run out of power in a headphone amp and have it distort. Or have a very high output impedance which screws up the response of the headphone.

 

[Fluffy]

Yep. Amps matter more than dacs.